Senior Editor of Chronogram magazine, freelance writer, photographer, editor and Iraq consultant, Lorna Tychostup has visited Iraq repeatedly since February 2003, collectively spending almost a year working in the country. At present, Tychostup is finishing her masters at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs (concentration: International Relations); acting as consultant to Nature Iraq (natureiraq.org) an Iraqi environmental non-government organization (NGO) currently working to base-line the environmental conditions within Iraq in support of socio-economic development and reconstruction efforts; and working on a proposal for her first book.

While most writers, academics and pundits talk about the issues in Iraq, many pushing their own agendas while in most cases never having stepped foot in the country, Tychostup offers instead, her on the ground, finger on the pulse reality of what is actually happening in Iraq. Her view goes beyond explosions and dead bodies and gives, instead, audiences the “untold story of how Iraq is attempting to rise from the ashes. Stories such as the reflooding of Iraq’s southern marshlands: what had been the third largest wetland in the world just 10 years ago - 8,000 square miles of thriving, expansive, and self-sustaining marshland - was purposely reduced to just five percent of its original size by the regime of Saddam Hussein intent upon destroying the 5000-year old culture of Iraq’s Marsh Arabs or Madan people, in retaliation for the Shiite uprising that followed the first US invasion of Iraq in 1991. Today, the Madan, many of whom were killed, and many others who fled the region, are returning to their watery homeland where plans are underway to create Iraq’s first National Park.

Tychostup’s reputation is built on her ability to report stories that go beyond mainstream media coverage. During her trips to Iraq, she has opted to get as close to the people (and hence the different truths) as possible. Living in modest unprotected hotels and most recently an apartment, and traveling in beat-up cabs and friend’s cars, she has found her way from the ordinary people in the street, to the squatters living in bombed-out government-owned properties, to high-ranking state ministers, to the judges of the new Iraq who have chosen to uphold the law of the land at incredible risk to their lives.

Walking among the Iraqi people—the powerful and the destitute alike—at several crucial historical moments, beholden to no editorial authority or political agenda, Lorna Tychostup has had an unparalleled opportunity to truly comprehend very complex developments. The perspective she has earned is unique and comprehensive Her haunting photographs and poignant stories enable her audiences to share the tragedy, the struggle and the triumph of the various communities that make up the Iraqi people. Her body of work is essential for anyone hoping to understand any aspect—domestic, political, or otherwise—of what is currently the world's most conspicuous crisis.

Tychostup’s photographs of Iraq and its people, before and during the war, have been exhibited throughout the country, and used in numerous presentations and on international websites. Her PowerPoint presentations have intrigued and informed audiences at colleges and other organizations from New York to Oregon. In addition to Chronogram, her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, YES!, Z Magazine, NYUs’ Humanus- Journal on Human Rights, Covert Action Quarterly, War Times, The Women’s Times, and Major League Baseball Magazine. She has been interviewed extensively, on both radio and TV, including Fox's "Hannity & Colmes" and NBC's "Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Her paper: “Negotiating New Territory in Iraq’s Occupation War Zone,” was published by the University of Tromso, Norway Center for Peace Studies’ Methodologies in Peace Research Conference, in 2007.

This fall, Lorna will be doing appearances with a very special guest: former top Iraqi judge, Zuhair Al-Maliki. Lorna and Judge Zuhair will present a very special and unforgettable evening, focusing on the struggles and hopes of the Iraqi people.

Click here to visit Judge Al-Maliki's page.